Soon To Be Burnley Player Joey Barton Charged For Placing Over 1200 Bets

Joey Barton has never been one to shy away from the headlines, with the English midfielder making the front papers once already this season whilst north of the border at Rangers. However since then, Barton has left the Scottish outfit and was planning on joining Sean Dyche’s Burnley who he had left in the summer to move to Rangers. His move is seemingly still going ahead however, the implications to when he might play is now in the balance, as a ban is to be decided after his most recent antics involving a betting scandal.

After a 5-1 thrashing in the Old Firm derby to Scottish rivals Celtic, Barton was involved in a training ground row and bust up with fellow team mates and manager Mark Warburton. After a prolonged absence from training of around six weeks, the club decided to cut times with Barton and his time north of the border ended after only eight games. Barton was on the move quickly and went back to train with Burnley tweeting, “Its great to be back!”. Once Barton and Burnley have international clearance over the transfer, the switch can then be completed. Barton however will miss his first game due to violating Scottish Football Associations rules on gambling, as he was handed a one match suspension, with bans being transferred among home nations.

As a result of Barton admitting the betting charges whilst in Scotland, further light was thrown into the enquiry with betting companies releasing more details on Barton’s antics off the field. Over a ten year period, it is now known that Barton placed 1260 bets between 26th March 2006 to 13 May 2016. The FA had changed their rules in 2014 regarding betting, making it illegal for any player in the top eight leagues in England to place any form of bets on any football game in the world.

Thus with a one match ban already being enforced to Barton, with new evidence of over 1200 offences, it is now up to the FA to decide what they will do and if they will let Barton off, fine him or enforce a further playing ban which will hinder Barton’s time at Burnley once he makes the move complete in January 2017.